The Actual Most Dangerous Game

I must have missed this bit of movie easter egg-dom during the one and only time I watched Predator 2 ten years ago. During one scene in the Predator’s “trophy area,” there hangs a skull on the wall that distinctly resembles the creature from Alien.

One intrepid fan has gone to the trouble of hand-crafting the thing from scratch to hang in their own trophy room, and the end result is a detailed work of art that’s simply phenomenal. If I had any amount of money to burn, I’d totally pay $875 for this.

It’s funny this was in this movie, as it was years before Alien vs. Predator was even conceived. Am I alone in thinking that movie actually offered a much more coherent explanation for the Aliens’ existence than Prometheus did? The Predators creating them as a sort of “super game” made more sense than the weird proto-human, accidentally evolution/mutation black good nonsense.

More picture below, including the still from the film where the skull is see. [via Geekologie]

About The Author

Paul

I think I'm a part of the first generation of journalists to skip print media entirely, and I've learned a lot these last few years at Forbes. My work has appeared on TVOvermind, IGN, and most importantly, a segment on The Colbert Report at one point.

djwajda

The first Aliens versus Predator story was published by Dark Horse Comics in Dark Horse Presents #34-36 (November 1989-February 1990). In November 1990, Predator 2 was released in theaters, and includes a scene depicting an Alien skull as one of the Predator’s trophies.

Mr B

The skull in Predator 2 was a nod to the fans of the AvP comic was it not?

http://@WeTwoGents Kyle

Easily the best part of this film. (Despite the pitiful green screen compositing of the ‘legless’ Predators in the Fog)

Let’s not forget the other Alien-verse cameo… Bill Paxton as the most annoying person in the room lol

Wasn’t Alien 3 in production when this film came out?

Toby

I’m not sure which AvP film its in (probably 3), but I’m pretty sure there is an Engineer helmet/skull in the ship trophy room. But obviously they didn’t know what the Engineer looks like then, so it has the trunk and just looks like the helmet.

Kristoph

It looks like if it loses a tooth it won’t grow another one back.

Ranchoth

As another fun fact—the original “Alien” head design from the first movie included a human-like skull, with eye sockets, under the translucent carapace. It’s actually still visible in some of the early merchandise and artwork.

thenottakenname

I think the original AvP games as well as the first AvP movie kind of explained where everything came from and the why and who and all that. I haven’t seen Prometheus yet but from what I understand I should view it as non-canonical.

Seiryoku

The Predators (Yautja) created the Aliens as the ultimate prey. Initially, they considered humans the top prey until they made these. Then they seed worlds with queens to make a hunt after a while. Except sometimes they screw up and the population gets overrun.

L

Don’t you dare compare the making of Predators to the Making of the Alien saga. Predators obviously has nothing to do with the storyline of Alien. They just have 10 year old fanart about it; which people have sadly conceived as legitimate based on its age and appearance in fan-made published comics. The makers of Aliens put more thought into their own universe than Predators should ever touch. IE, predators was solely made as a popcorn entertainment flick, the Alien saga actually was a work of art and has way more effort put into it both storyline, set, and animatronics. Enough said.

http://www.predations.org timothy

i love how in alien versus predator the predators are actually aliens, and the aliens are technically not as they are conceived and birthed locally and are predators.

Alexavrious

According to the books/comics of the AvP series, humans are often referred to as soft meat. Aliens as hard meat. The aliens were not the ultimate prey because they did not think. They are a hive mind. They are a physically stronger prey but not mentally. Hence why the predators would hunt them and move them from planet to planet. They could do so with their resources. Only a select few were ever granted permission to hunt humans because they were smart and almost always caught and killed at some point. Honestly the movie of AvP has a few hints and points that align with the story of the book. The comic and book series was far more developed than the movies and the movies ruin their own story arcs. With Alien Resurrection, not that we mention that one much, the aliens creating a human alien hybrid and trying to get to Earth to populate it. Why do so if there was already the potential of them being there?